Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Ebbw Vale face an extremely long trip for their first Swalec Cup game of the season.

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Llandudno away on the 20th December is the 4th round tie, and Ebbw will need to be fully stretched out after a good 4 hour journey through the windy roads.

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Smashing town though it is (The Jasmine House is an excellent Chinese restaurant), December is not the time of year to see the beautiful North Wales coastline in its full glory. August is much better - no rugby of course, but at least Glamorgan are playing at nearby Rhos On Sea!

As widely expected, Herschelle (Herman) Gibbs was today confirmed as Glamorgan's overseas player for 2009, and is contracted to play during July, August and September.

County stalwarts (got the anorak, drunk the flask) have to be very patient at this time of year. Next year's fixtures have been delayed due to uncertainty over Sri Lanka's early season tour, and there has been a distinct lack of news regarding new faces at Glamorgan.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

An extremely disappointing afternoon of rugby at a dreary Eugene Cross Park last Saturday saw a well drilled, but limited, Glamorgan Wanderers side deservedly grind out a 13-9 win at Ebbw Vale.

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The Steelmen can have few complaints. Wanderers scored the only try of the game whilst Ebbw rarely threatened from close to the visitors' line..

I'm not quite sure what the problem was with Ebbw. The side is very young granted, a back row aged 18, 19 and 20. But the side did appear to lack leadership up front, maybe there are too many youngsters..Also, players who don't normally make mistakes like Kris Owen and Andrew McLaughlin behind the scrum seemed to reflect the lack of confidence and energy in the team..Winter is with us, and Ebbw cannot afford to lose the forward battles in the cold and wet months. Our scrum and lineout were second best last Saturday and Lyn Jones will need to work on that, especially with high flying Llanelliand the ever competitive Aberavon next up at ECP..Alas, the Llanelli game will be the 1st one I miss this year (home or away) as work takes me over the border for 2 days next week. To be honest, after last weekend's error strewn snoozefest, I feel less sorry about it..Edit (28/11/08) Pictures at last

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Oh well, it sounds as though Glamorgan's probable overseas player for 2009 is in trouble again.

Herschelle Gibbs certainly doesn't come without baggage. Involvement with match fixing as a youngster led astray by Hansie Cronje, Gibbs (wiki) does have a reputation for drinking, womanising and gambling.

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It seems as though his demons are starting to catch up with him, as South Africa leave him out of their current ODI squad in order to get treatment for alcohol issues.

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I'm pretty confident that this won't affect his Glamorgan spell next summer. When has being a drinker been out of place in the Glamorgan culture? Surely all he needs to do is take up smoking so that he can fit in even more? Oh, he's done that as well..In fact, his ban may be good news for the Welsh county. If his South Africa days are behind him, then Gibbs could become Glamorgan's first Kolpak player upon his return from the Indian Premier League, and indeed be available sooner if he's not required by his country for the 20/20 World Cup, freeing up our overseas spot for a quick bowler.

A good value gig, and a trip down memory lane, at the Cardiff University Students Union last Saturday I thought. £12 for 3 bands? Not bad in these recessionary times.

I was firstly surprised at how little the Union had changed - I haven't been in there for 10-12 years. Same Great Hall, same loos, same entrance to what was the Dyfed/Finistere. It was a step back in time, musically as well as geographically maybe?

Opening band, Sound and the Fury, were okay, but a bit of a pub outfit really.

I thought that the Stone Gods(wiki) have more places to go. Formed from the ashes of one album wonders The Darkness, they just have to decide if they want to play the Darkness type stuff like "Im With The Band" or the darker, gothy stuff like "Knight of the Living Dead". Definitely one to watch. Plentiful stage presence, and with a big album to come quite possible.

Airbourne(wiki) certainly have plenty of energy and noise, synchronsied headbanging, and Jack Daniels from the bottle. You could have been transported back to a time when AC/DC were youngsters with Angus Young and Bon Scott being morphed into one front man.

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Some good tracks, but a bit like the same song played twelve times over. Good fun, but I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again? I'm also not sure where they go from here, (2nd album?) but may become a festival favourite.

Monday, November 3, 2008

As widely expected, the 1st 6,000 tickets for the 2009 Ashes test at Cardiff were snapped up in hours today. No doubt many of them will make their way onto the black market.

Thankfully, I'm already in through Glamorgan membership, and we'll be making our own contribution to the banking credit crisis by being there for the 1st four days in the Riverside End, which certainly ain't cheap.

Nonetheless, it's a historic occasion, and judging by the weaknesses in the Australian bowling attack out in India at the moment (no spinner of quality), England can go get them if they get their attitude right.

Clearly they didn't do that in the recent 20 over nonsense in Antigua, and my main concern about the 1st Test is that if certain players catch the media bug of "it shouldn't be in Cardiff" then they may get off to the wrong start in the series.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Ebbw Vale had to settle for a draw at a cold and windy St Helens after a Swansea try under the posts levelled things up in the 6th minute of injury time.

1st half pics

2nd half pics

Bit gutted really after leading for just about the whole match, but on reflection Swansea played the better rugby and deserved at least a draw. Ebbw looked tired, battered and bruised at the end, and need the break for the International.

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Andrew McLaughlan's first half try is here, and there's some highlights on the Swansea website.